Caving In | Titans

Chapter 2 - Fossilized Memories

The next morning comes around and Sam is taking the time she has alone to shower. It's barely four in the morning so no one else is awake and she's pretty grateful for that right now. Before going to bed the night before, Rachel stopped back by her room and offered her some clothes for the following day. So, Sam is the only one awake and figured it'd be really nice to have a proper shower for once. But the shower isn't the relaxing thing she expected.

This is the first time she's seen herself in a mirror since being put into a basement for several months. It's the first time she's seen herself at all but this is also the first time she's getting a look at how the tower is seeing her. Her right eye is still black and blue, only a small portion of it starting to turn a faint shade of yellow. It looks a little swollen still even though she feels like she can see fine out of it. The cut on her lip is still open and the cut on her cheek is bright red. Bruises in the shapes of fingers are a grayish blue on her biceps, right over the scar on her right bicep. There's a red and purple bruise in the shape of a shoe on her back. The more she looks the more bruises she finds and she winces, finally understanding all of the sympathetic looks she's gotten. Not that they know about the bruises across her back and stomach but they saw her arms.

She thought it was so weird Dick wanted to help but seeing herself in the mirror, she completely understands because if she saw herself on the street right now, she'd be livid and forcing that person to come with her. Her head hangs and it's kind of like she understands and a feeling of maybe wanting to tell them what happened comes over her.

If she tells them, maybe the looks will stop because she's healing and they'll know. It's just kind of an elephant in the room as much she wants to avoid it in her head, it's there. And every single time they look at her, they're just going to want the full story. The looks won't stop until they know. And all she can do is sigh because it's four in the morning and sleeping for an hour has her feeling a lot more feelings that she ever really liked. So, she swallows the lump her throat and goes for the shower.

After the shower, Sam finds herself in the kitchen looking for food. She finds some cereal, Cheerios, and otps for that. At this point, she's not going to complain but she always did like Cheerios. Once she has her bowl, she moves into the living room and turns the TV on, sitting on the floor at the small coffee table like she used to do when she was a kid. She finds Avatar: The Last Airbender on one of the many streaming services connected to the TV and calls herself content. She eats in peace watching a childhood favorite of hers and it fels easy. She feels at ease here and it feels like it could almost feel like home if she put in a real effort to give it a chance. If she could find a way in herself to really trust these strangers. It'll be hard but maybe it'll be worth it, early mornings alone in front of TV with some cereal.

By the time six rolls around, the lack of sleep and paranoia has started to catch up to her. This place feels safe but it also feels too good to be true. There's a little humming in the back of her head, telling her not to trust anyone because anyone can say they're one thing and be the opposite. Sam used to be so trusting of people, not naïve or anything like that, but trusting of people in general but now, it's hard to imagine people just being nice to be nice. What if she falls asleep, really gets some sleep, and they turn on her? What if they're working with him? And he comes to take her back? Maybe she'll get lucky and everyone will leave the tower so she can get some real peaceful sleep. She's gone longer without sleep, she'll be fine. She's always fine.